En Route!

Well somehow it happened that 4 mountains of gear, food, clothing and sundries made it into bags and onto the shuttle and 8 minutes ahead of schedule! There were doubters among them but even those of us with a rep for lagging a little behind put on a good sprint and got 'er dun!

We have an easy 3hr ride to Talkeetna and the view are outrageous. The mountains simply rise up out of the water and land everywhere you look and they soar into the sky gaining the look of a pointy topped unside down cake with drizzled vanilla frosting, (note the food reference as we begin to think of entering our 2 weeks of "limited" options for meals!)

More along the way!
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View from costco!

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Shopping done...almost

At the checkout going oh my god it weighs a lot! 3lbs hash browns, 4 lbs bacon, 10lbs cheese, 96 granola bars, 6lbs coffee, 36 bagels, 6lb pasta, 6lbs quinoa, 4 packs of salmon jerky, 4 packs of turkey jerky, 2 jars orgamic peanut butter, 120 packets of swiss miss hot cocoa, random amounts of falafel, sausages, bbq pork, peanut m&m's, coconut curry and so on!
Now we are sitting realizing we still don't have pancake mix, soup, rice, brown sugar and so on. After knocking off a carne asada at the famous Costco luncheon we'll be off to REI and AMH to get last bits of rope, snowshoe rentals and then a finish at Carr's for last food and med kit items. Phew!!!
More later!
Stu and gang from Costco
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Shopping day at costco

From stu in anchorage
It is a beautiful sunny day with mountains to look at at we are haggling over family sized bottles of cooking oil! Ahh the exciting life of climbing!
More soon!
Pic is Christi, Brad and Matt!

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Brad and his gear explosion

More pics at the end of the day but loads gear all over! Brad came 32hrs travel from singapore so gets the long distance award!
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Gear prep day!

We are all settled into the Earth B&B and getting out our gear to check it all over before heading out for food and gear shopping!
We'll pass on an update along the way!

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En Route to Anchorage!

Hi All,
Brad had begun the long flight already, I board shortly and Matt and Christi soon. We'll all be jamming into a large renta-vehicle and arriving late at the Earth B&B. In the morning we'll update you all on the progress.

Word on the "street" is that the night temps low on the mountain are -20F but pretty "warm" days and reasonably clear weather. Some snow has fallen which will make the path softer so that is nice!

We are all leaving behind people we love and care for and this is perhaps the hardest part of any expedition and we send our love to each and every one of them. We promise to be safe and make smart decisions for as Ed Veisturs likes to say "the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory"

More soon!

Stu
Ps
How travel has changed...attached pic of my ipod and mac charging up while I wait so I can work on the plane to Minneapolis!

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